Showing posts with label gwyn macfarlane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gwyn macfarlane. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2014

How can you tell when a scientist is lying? They don't footnote : the sad case of Gwyn MacFarlane

Before I knew much about penicillin , I really enjoyed Gwyn Macfarlane's two books on penicillin - he's such a smooth writer.

But now that I have seen many of the primary documents and more particularly now that I have the exact 20 year chronology of early penicillin firmly set in my mind (one of the very few things I don't mind saying that I am very good at) , MacFarlane severely depresses me.

Why are so many scientists such morally bad historians ?